The invention relates to an apparatus for coating and/or etching substrates in a vacuum chamber, having a coating source, for example a cathode bearing a target, and having a substrate holder which can be moved with respect to the coating source, plus a power supply and a plate or mask which can be moved within the space between the source and the substrate.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,422,896 describes an apparatus in which the substrates are disposed on a polygonal body which is mounted on the cover of the vacuum chamber. The substrates can be fastened on the substrate holder or removed therefrom only with difficulty.
DD 225 451 discloses a positioning gear for the angular etching of substrates, especially semiconductor wafers, which is disposed in a vacuum chamber of a dry etching apparatus and is joined to a substrate plate bearing the substrates. The positioning gear moves the substrate plate, which is integral with a substrate holder, to an etching position within the high vacuum of 0 degrees to 90 degrees. The substrate holder successively assumes air-locking positions and working positions in a linear direction of movement. The pivoting substrate plate is mounted on a pivot axis on the part of the substrate holder that is not adjustable for the etching angle. A plate is disposed at right angles to the pivot axis of the substrate plate and contains a cam track. An element for the transmission of a rotating movement is fixed to the pivot shaft, and drives an additional transfer means rotatably disposed on the part of the substrate holder that is not adjustable for etching angle, and it has at a distance from its axis of rotation a means which engages the cam track of the plate. The cam track is configured so that when the substrate holder moves in range of the etching position the substrate plate is rotated at an angle of 0 degrees and 90 degrees to the ion source axis, the center of the substrate surface always retaining its position in the ion beam in a great number of different etching positions. This known apparatus has the disadvantage of being extraordinarily complicated in construction and therefore very liable to give trouble. U.S. application Ser. No. 08/160,923 (DE 43 05 740) discloses an apparatus for the coating and/or etching of substrates, in which the substrate holder is so disposed within the vacuum chamber and the substrate holder is so configured that the actual treatment process can take place with the substrate surfaces upright. The danger of loss of quality of the coated surfaces due to particles of glitter falling onto the substrates is thereby prevented, the cathode and anode arrangement is easy to maintain, and the replacement of targets can be performed effortlessly.
For this purpose the substrate holder is in the form of a substantially cylindrical hollow body whose circular end face is provided with a journal pin which is held for rotation about a horizontal axis in a bearing disposed on the side wall of the vacuum chamber. Holders for clamping the substrates are provided on the circumferential surface of the hollow body and at least partially overlap the cylindrical outer surface. The cathode and/or the etching anode are disposed opposite the substrate holder in a plane running horizontally and in the plane of the axis of rotation of the substrate holder.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,595,483 discloses a cathode sputtering apparatus with a successive series of stations including a loading station, an etching station,and a coating station. A substrate carrier which can move back and forth between the stations is fastened by a boom eccentrically on a rotary bearing brought through the vacuum chamber. This known apparatus cools the substrates on their way through the individual stations, but it also has a special circular disk that serves as a preliminary sputtering plate onto which the impurities from the surface of the sputtering cathode deposit themselves at the beginning of the coating process.